Clash Royale: Strategy, Quick Thinking… and Internet?

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Strategy! Quick thinking! Internet! All of these are important for Supercell’s multiplayer game, Clash Royale!

Unlike some of Supercell’s other popular games, Clash of Clans and Boom Beach, this game is not tycoon based! Clash Royale is a unique and fun deck battling game set in the Clash of Clans universe. (Yes! That proves that Clash of Clans is better than Boom Beach! Ha!)

In Clash Royale you use elixir (sound familiar?) to place down your cards. You receive one elixir every two seconds, with a maximum of ten- that’s displayed at the bottom of your screen in a bar. Both players have three towers, two Arena Towers, and one King tower. The King Tower is the most important tower because, if you destroy that, you can win with three crowns (Yes, yes, you want to know what those are. Calm down and be patient!) instantly. It’s the most common way for battles to end; however, since the two Arena Towers are in front, you usually have to go through them first (with the exceptions of some cards, but we’ll delve into that later). Your cards are used for both defending your own towers and putting your opponents’ under siege.

There are three types of cards. There are troop cards, building cards, and spell cards. There are also four rarities, common, rare, and epic, and legendary. Troop cards, well, spawn troops that will advance towards your opponent’s side of the screen. Some troops will target towers or buildings, and some will target other troops first. Most troops only hit one thing at a time. However, some troops deal splash damage, also known as AOE (Area of Effect), where they hit multiple things at once. Troops cost different amounts of elixir. For example, a skeleton army costs four elixir, but the three musketeers cost nine. Some troop cards spawn in multiples of the same troop! Troops have varied stats. Some are “tanky” and have lots of health, and some are “glass cannons” and deal a lot of damage but don’t have much health themselves. Some troops are “all-rounders” and are in between. Some troops are fast, some are slow, some are big, and some are small. There are tons to choose from! Some troops stay on the ground, and some fly in the sky. Some troops can’t even target others because of this. Also, some troops leave bombs after they die. They really leave a trace of themselves, don’t they?

Building cards usually either spawn in troops, or attack troops themselves. Buildings have different ranges (or not, in case of a spawner), health, and attack power (once again, not in case of a spawner). All buildings, however, will slowly lose health over time. Attacking buildings are quite forthright, as all they do is attack. Spawning buildings, or more commonly known as “spawners”, spawn troops periodically. The troops’ level varies on the level of the building itself. (Levels? What are those? How do they work- I’m getting to that. Please, keep all of your questions until the end of the presentation.)

Spell cards are the exception I mentioned earlier. They can be placed anywhere on the map, and usually deal damage within their own radius. However, some spells don’t work that simply. Some deal damage over time and stay there for a while. Some freeze troops, and some help your own, such as the rage spell, that speed up your troops and increases their damage and their attack speed. Used right, spells can be devastating. However, spells aren’t the only cards that can be placed anywhere. There are exceptions such as the miner, goblin barrel, and graveyard, which may be placed anywhere on the field.

You can have eight cards in your deck, and four in your “hand” during battle. The four that are selected to be in your “hand” first are completely random. Every time you use a card, you draw another card, usually in the order you used them (After you get through the four cards that weren’t in your hand). With over forty cards to collect and more coming out soon, you can make a fully custom deck that works for you!

Crowns are the new system that show how well you did in battle. If you destroy only one Arena tower before the battle ends, you get one crown. If you destroy two Arena towers before the battle ends, you get two crowns. If you destroy one Arena tower and then the King’s tower, both towers and then the King’s tower, or just the King’s tower, you get three crowns, the most you can get in one battles.

Trophies have transferred from Clash of Clans to Clash Royale as well. Trophies are a ranking of how good of a Clash Royale player you are. You gain an amount of trophies if you win a battle, and you lose an amount of trophies if you lose a battle. Surprisingly, crowns have nothing to do with the amount of trophies you earn. It usually has to do with the level of your opponent’s king tower, which can be leveled up through EXP, earned through leveling up your cards or donating to others in your clan.

Now, instead of “leagues” from Clash of Clans, there are arenas. As you gain more trophies, you increase you arena level. You arena unlocks new cards for you, and also gives you a cool background to your battles.

After you win a battle, you can earn a chest. No one knows what decides the quality of the chest (wood, silver, gold, etc.), but most people agree that it’s arena level and luck. Inside the chest you can earn gold and sometimes gems. You also earn cards of varying amounts and rarity. However, you don’t only want to get a card once. If you get enough, you can use the same copies of a card to level it up using gold to make it more powerful. So, both unlocking new cards and re-recieving old ones are both beneficial. There is also the free chest, which is, obviously, a free chest that you receive once every four hours. The crown chest isn’t gained from battle either. Instead, it is received once every twenty-four hours and requires ten crowns to open.

The market is where you can buy cards, chests, gold, and gems. Three cards cycle through every day- except for Sunday. There are six on Sunday- two of each rarity, not including Legendary. Legendary cards will appear in shop once a player has reached Arena ten. Chests and gold both cost gems, and gems require REAL MONEY.

Clans are simple. Each clan is basically just a group you can join or create with other people from around the world. There are three features of clans. You can have a friendly battle with people in your clan, where neither player wins or loses any trophies; you can donate cards to each other when requested; and you can share replays of past battles.

Clash Royale has recently added special events such as draft challenges and the clan battle. Both very popular, they both are unique and different from the norm. The draft challenge involves a 15 second period before the match in which each player is given a choice of two cards. The player must pick one of the two, and the other goes to their opponent. Each player picks four, so each receives the normal total of 8. Clan battles received a lot of positive feedback as well. Clan battles involve four people, as opposed to the normal two. Doing this challenge requires being in a clan (As you may or may not have figured out). A clan-mate joins you in battle against two opponents from another clan. Each player has their own deck. That’s 16 cards for each team. In addition, each player has their own individual elixir bar. This allows for many, many possibilities, and is generally very fun, especially if one is standing right next to their clan-mate in real life.

Remember in the top when I mentioned internet? That wasn’t just me flippantly stating the obvious, that the game requires it. In fact, it seems that Clash Royale is incredibly picky regarding its connection to the internet, whether you’re sitting five feet away from your router or not. Many players, including myself, find this incredibly frustrating, as it typically causes a loss, considering that it leaves your towers completely vulnerable to enemy attack.

Will you and your deck use strategy, quick thinking and internet to your advantage to win, or will you tumble like a house of cards to a stinging defeat?